East Lancashire nursing home rapped over care standards

A NURSING home has been rapped by inspectors after failing to meet five essential standards of care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) raised several concerns about Peel Gardens, off Vivary Way in Colne, including staffing levels, the management of medicines and the welfare of residents.

However, the home’s new manager said significant improvements had been made since she took over in March, including the recruitment of 17 new members of staff.

The CQC visited the 45-bed home on April 17 and said it had been reliant on agency staff since late 2013, which had ‘impacted on all areas of the day-to-day running of the home’.

The inspection team added: “Despite an increase in staffing numbers we observed there were still times where people were not given the assistance they needed.”

Meanwhile, the team said medicine rounds were still in progress until late morning, which created ‘a risk that medicines were not being given to people at the correct time’. There were also gaps in the medication records which ‘could mean people had not been given medication as per their prescription, or that it had been given but not recorded’.

The report did not say that residents had suffered any actual harm from these failings.

The inspectors also noted that ‘a number of safeguarding alerts had been raised’ about the service, although no details were provided.

Minor concerns were raised about the safety and suitability of the premises and record-keeping at the home, which is run by European Care (UK) Ltd.

Manager Angela Cheyte said: “I’ve only been here since March and was well aware there were some issues. I was brought in to address them and we’ve already made significant progress.

“We had a meeting with the CQC last week. We’ve got a big plan of action in place and it’s going well. We did a lot of recruitment straight away and have now brought in myself and a new deputy, an activity coordinator, a head housekeeper, four nurses and nine new carers.”